Commentary from THE ANNOTATED
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYEREdited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT
Rivingtons, London, 1884
OCTAVE DAY OF EASTER
All the days between Easter and its Octave have “in ablis” added to
them in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, but the Sunday after Easter is
called Dominica octavas Paschae. From a very ancient period, however,
it has been called “Dominica post albas,” or (as in the Ambrosian Missal),
“Dominica in albis depositis,” and shortly, “Dominica in albis,” because
on this day the newly baptized first appeared without the chrisms or white
robes which they had worn every day since their baptism on Easter Eve.
The popular English name of Low Sunday has probably arisen from the contrast
between the joys of Easter and the first return to ordinary Sunday services.
On this Sunday, or sometimes on the fourth Sunday after Easter, it was
the custom, in primitive days, for those who had been baptized the year
before to keep an anniversary of their baptism, which was called the Annotine
Easter, although the actual anniversary of the previous Easter might fall
on another day. [Micrologus, lvi.] The Epistle evidently bears
on this custom, and sets forth the new birth of Baptism as the beginning
of an abiding power of overcoming the world through its connection with
the Risen Christ, the source of our regeneration. The ancient writer
just referred to suggests the reflection, that if we celebrate the anniversary
of that day when we were born to eternal death through original sin, how
much rather ought we to keep in memory the day when we were new born into
eternal life?
The Collect appointed for this Sunday in 1549 was that now in use; being
the same that was appointed for the second communion on Easter Day, and
for Easter Monday and Tuesday. In 1552, when the special service
for this second communion was discontinued, the Collect at present in use
on Easter Day was substituted. In both cases Low Sunday was regarded
as the Octave of Easter, according to the ancient rite; but in 1661 the
original Collect of the day was restored at the suggestion of Cosin, the
change that had removed it from use on Easter Day being overlooked, and
thus the ritual symmetry of the two services was marred.
